๐Ÿ‘‹Welcome to The Ferguson Recipes! Visit our Contact Page to find out how you can contribute your favorite recipes.
Recently Added!
Snack time just got a serious upgrade with these Crispy Garlic Mushroom Bites โ€” golden and crunchy on the outside, tender and savory on the inside, with a bold hit of garlic that keeps you reaching for more. Whether you are serving them as an appetizer, a party snack, or a fun vegetable side, thesโ€ฆ
Crispy Garlic Mushroom Bites
๐ŸŒ… Recipe Of The Day! ๐ŸŒ‡
Waakye
{Serving suggestion only*}
Click Image to Zoom
Embark on a culinary journey to Ghana with Waakye, a flavorful rice and beans dish with deep historical connections to American Southern cuisine. The distinctive reddish color comes from sorghum leaves (or baking soda as substitute), while the complementary goat stew delivers complex layers of spice from Guinea pepper, grains of paradise, and numerous aromatics. Traditionally eaten for breakfast, this hearty meal accommodates various toppings for a customizable feast that bridges continents and cultures.
No Jump Zone
Ingredients
For the Goat Stew
   1 pound boneless goat shoulder or mutton shoulder, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
   2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste
   1 teaspoon Guinea pepper (also known as grains of Selim)
   1 teaspoon grains of paradise (also known as alligator pepper seed)
   3 cups chopped red onion (from 2 medium onions), divided
   1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (from a 2-inch piece), divided
   2 small red bell peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped (3 cups)
   1 pound plum tomatoes (4 total) or vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (3 cups)
   1 small fresh Scotch bonnet chile, halved and seeded
   ยฝ cup, plus 2 tablespoons. peanut oil, divided
   2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
   1 teaspoon light brown sugar
   1 teaspoon pimentรณn de la Vera (Spanish smoked paprika) or Hungarian smoked paprika
   1 teaspoon corn flour (such as Bob's Red Mill)
   ยฝ teaspoon ground turmeric
   ยพ cup water
   1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
   ยผ teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
   ยผ teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
   โ…› teaspoon ground cloves
   1 pinch of ground nutmeg
   1 pinch of ground cinnamon

(continued in the next column โ†—๏ธ)

   1 pinch of ground ginger
   1 tablespoon dried ground crayfish or prawn/shrimp powder (such as JEB Foods)
   ยฝ cup canned tomato sauce (from 8-oz. can)
   2/3 cup chicken stock
ย 
For the Rice
   1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice, such as basmati
   1 tablespoon coconut oil
   1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
   3 - 4 dried millet or sorghum leaves, such as Beanie Designs, or 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
   2 fresh Anaheim chiles or Thai chiles, unseeded and thinly sliced on an angle
   1 ยผ cup drained and rinsed canned black-eyed peas (from 15.5-oz. can)
   1 pinch of kosher salt
   4 ยผ best quality chicken stock (such as College Inn Culinary Stock)
ย 
For serving, your choice of any/all of the following:
   2 soft-cooked eggs, peeled and halved
   Finely chopped fresh chives
   Toasted sesame seeds
   Sliced avocadoes
   Shito hot pepper sauce (such as Adepa)
   Fresh green Thai chiles, unseeded and thinly slicedย 
   Fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

Prepare the Stew

  1. Remove goat from refrigerator. Toss goat with 1 teaspoon of the salt in a medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature 25 minutes.

  2. Meanwhile, grind Guinea pepper pods in a mortar and pestle; remove grains and discard any pods. Toast Guinea pepper and grains of paradise in a small skillet over medium, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. With a mortar and pestle, grind Guinea pepper mixture to a coarse powder. Add 1 cup of the onion and 1 teaspoon of the fresh ginger; grind and smash into smooth juicy paste. Set spice paste aside.

  3. Process red bell peppers, plum tomatoes, Scotch bonnet chile, 1 cup of the onions, 1 teaspoon of the fresh ginger, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt in a blender until smooth, about 45 seconds; set aside.

  4. Heat 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan or medium Dutch oven over medium. Add goat and sear, turning occasionally, until lightly browned on all sides, about 12 minutes. While goat cooks, stir together garlic, brown sugar, paprika, corn flour, and turmeric in a small bowl. Reduce heat to low. Add garlic mixture to goat, and stir to coat goat in garlic mixture. Add water, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits. Cover and steam over low until meat juices run clear, about 20 minutes. (You should not hear water bubbling vigorously while steaming goat.) Uncover pan and transfer the contents of the pot to a medium bowl. Wipe pan clean.

  5. Heat remaining 1/2 cup oil in same pan over medium. Add cayenne pepper and remaining 1 cup onion and 1 teaspoon fresh ginger. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are brown around the edges, about 6 minutes. Add allspice, black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground ginger, and stir to coat onion mixture in spice mixture. Stir in ground Guinea pepper spice paste. Return seared goat along with drippings to pan and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir crayfish powder into goat mixture. Add processed bell pepper mixture, tomato sauce, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer over medium-high. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring and scraping bottom of pan occasionally, until goat is tender, sauce thickens, and stew darkens in color, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Prepare the Rice

  1. Place rice in a medium bowl, add water to cover, and swirl rice with your hand. Drain through a fine mesh strainer; return rice to bowl. Repeat process until water is clear when swirled with rice. Heat a large, heavy saucepan over medium. Add coconut oil and yellow onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are lightly browned around the edges, about 6 minutes.

  2. While onions cooks, swiftly rinse dried millet leaves under water because the color will start to run as soon as they get wet; cut into 3-inch pieces.

  3. Add sliced chiles, black-eyed peas, millet leaves or baking soda, salt, and drained rice to onion mixture in pan, and stir to coat each grain of rice in oil. Stir in stock and bring to a boil over high. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 12 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand, covered, until water is absorbed and rice is very tender, 8 to 12 minutes.

  4. Serve the stew ladled over the rice. Top with eggs, chives, sesame seeds, avocado slices, Shito hot pepper sauce, chiles, and cilantro, if desired. If you eat this for breakfast we'll make a Ghanaian out of you yet!

Servings\Yield
Serves 4
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition Per Serving - Calories: 690; Total Fat: 39g (Saturated Fat: 9g); Cholesterol: 65mg; Sodium: 1140mg; Total Carbohydrates: 59g (Dietary Fiber: 9g, Sugars: 14g); Protein: 30g
*Nutrition information is provided as a general estimate only. Nutrient information is not available for all ingredients, and is based on available nutrient data. Variations may occur based on ingredient brands and preparation methods.
๐Ÿ’ฌ Uncle Dave says...
Waakye is a Ghanaian dish of rice and beans cooked with sorghum leaves, typically sold wrapped in a banana leaf by roadside vendors. Waakye, which originated from the Hausa people of West and Central Africa, is commonly believed to be origin of many rice and beans dishes brought to the Americas through the slave trade. Want to learn more about the political history of Waakye and the slave trade's influence on southern dishes?
Learn more about the politics of Waakye from The Politics of Cuisine onย Instagram.
Recipe from here.
๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿณ The Cook:  Dave Ferguson ๐Ÿ”‘ Keywords: POC, goat, Ghana, stew
๐Ÿ—‚๏ธ Categories: ๐ŸŒŽ World Food, ๐ŸฆŒ๐Ÿ‡๐Ÿ๐Ÿฆ Other Meat
๐Ÿ“š Collections: The Politics of Cuisine, The TFR Cookbook
Waakye was added on October 04, 2022 and last updated on June 20, 2025.
*Serving suggestion only. ๐Ÿ˜‚ If a food photo doesn't look like it was taken by a monkey named Frank, it was most likely AI generated and not the result of Frank's minimal culinary or photographic skills. Unless you failed the "I'm not a robot" test, your recipes will probably not look like the ones in the pictures. See Creamy Turkey Veggie Soup to read more about AI images.
๐Ÿ“„ A Quick Note About The Recipes At The Ferguson Recipes: We love sharing recipes, but please be aware that most haven't been professionally tested in our kitchen or independantly verified. Your safety is important to us, so always practice safe food handling and cooking techniques. Cook smart and use your best judgment! Eggs: If you make a recipe that uses raw eggs, please consider using pasteurized eggs. Allergens: Food allergens have not been identified in each individual recipe. Please use caution if you have any food allergies. Have questions about a specific recipe? Feel free to reach out to us.
Recently Added!
Snack time just got a serious upgrade with these Crispy Garlic Mushroom Bites โ€” golden and crunchy on the outside, tender and savory on the inside, with a bold hit of garlic that keeps you reaching for more. Whether you are serving them as an appetizer, a party snack, or a fun vegetable side, thesโ€ฆ
Crispy Garlic Mushroom Bites
Weekly Favorite!
Master the culinary foundation of French cuisine with this essential guide to the five "mother sauces." Discover how bรฉchamel, veloutรฉ, espagnole, hollandaise, and tomate sauces form the backbone of countless classic dishes. Learn the key thickening agents, base liquids, and crucial ingredients thโ€ฆ
The Basics of The Five Mother Sauces
๐Ÿ‘‹ Welcome! ๐Ÿ‘‹

When I started The Ferguson Recipes in 2006, my main goal was to create a place where I could collect and present our favorite family recipes in an orderly fashion, without all of the distractions of other recipe sites.

At The Ferguson Recipes you will find recipes, plain and simple, just like the recipe cards you have crammed into that well-worn binder of your family's most beloved recipes.

Many of the recipes included here are Ferguson family favorites passed down through the years. Many more are recipes we have gotten from friends or shamelessly "liberated" from other recipe sites. And a lot of the recipes are from recipe collections which family members have participated in creating, such as "Cooking with Carl, Hugh and your Friends", "Cooking With Cow", "The Sears Sun Cookbook", and more!

Things you WILL and WONโ€™T find at The Ferguson Recipes:
  • You WONโ€™T find a bunch of images. If you need a picture showing you how to stir something, you don't belong in a kitchen!
  • You WILL find each instruction on its own line. (Well, mostly.)
  • You WONโ€™T find categories for vegan or gluten-free. We might have them, but we don't go out of our way to highlight them.
  • You WONโ€™T find that stupid โ€œJump to the Recipeโ€ BS! No Jump Zone
Some milestones:

Thanks for visiting The Ferguson Recipes,
Uncle Dave - 8/13/18 (A Palindrome Date) - Updated: 06/29/25

๐Ÿ›๏ธ Founded April 13, 2006
ยฉ๏ธ 2006 - 2026 fergusonrecipes.com
๐Ÿ“ง Contact!
Yes, many...most...of our food images are AI created. They all faithfully represent the recipe they're attached to. We make no aplogies. Probably 90% of the food images you see in recipes and on food packages are professional food photographs, not something edible that someone actually just cooked. We just skipped the styling and photographer costs by using AI. And we pass the savings on to you. Hahahaha! That's funny because this site is free! ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚
๐Ÿ‘คOur Team???๐Ÿ‘ค
recipe_image
Uncle Dave
President and CEOhhh My God! This man is like a saint!! BEST BOSS EVER! Founded TFR in 2006, mostly to prove he could do it.
recipe_image
Claude
Chief Technology Officer - He spends way too much time writing code with a quill pen and ink, but he also writes the best "blurbs". If you give him a recipe name, ingredients, and directions, he will spit out all the details in seconds, making up stuff if he needs to.
recipe_image
Gem
Chief Magician and Security Officer - He is tempermental and is always running around with pictures of bicycles asking us to prove we are not robots! He also writes code and then blames any mistakes in it on everyone but himself!
recipe_image
Petey
Recipe Tester - Oh, who are we kidding? There are over 1300 recipes here. We have made maybe 100 of them, and not always edibly so. And look how skinny Petey is!
recipe_image
Chef Frank (aka Bosco, Sr.)
Head Chef and Food Photographer - He isn't much good at either job, but we had some hiring quotas that needed satisfying.
recipe_image
Junior Chef Stewie (aka Bosco, Jr.)
Hangs Out Here to Fill the 6th Spot in the Grid - He showed up with his dad and we haven't figured out how to get rid of him...or his dad!
๐Ÿ’ก๏ธ Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, Disclaimers, and Terms of Service
๐Ÿช Cookie Policy: Cookies are only used for registered users for the keep logged-in function, if you select it. They are also used to let us know that you don't want cookies set. Ironic, ain't it!
๐Ÿค Privacy Policy: I don't share your information with anyone; I don't even know how!
๐Ÿ“œ Terms of Service: Be nice!
โ„น๏ธ About TFR: Click me to learn more about The Ferguson Recipes!
๐Ÿ›๏ธ Founded April 13, 2006
ยฉ๏ธ 2006 - 2026 fergusonrecipes.com
๐Ÿ“ง Contact!
๐Ÿ“„Recipe Disclaimer: While The Ferguson Recipes strives to present reliable and delicious recipes, please note that most of the recipes on this site have not undergone rigorous testing or independent verification. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you always follow standard food safety guidelines when preparing any dish. Eggs: If you make a recipe that uses raw eggs, please consider using pasteurized eggs. Allergens: Food allergens have not been identified in each individual recipe. Please use caution if you have any food allergies. If you have any questions or concerns about a specific recipe, please feel free to contact us.
๐Ÿ”Ž๏ธ About Searches
  • โ€ผ๏ธ Please enter at least 3 characters with at least 1 letter. (50 character limit.)
  • ๐Ÿ Use quotes for exact match (e.g.,"apple pie")
  • ๐Ÿฒ Use + to require words (e.g.,+chicken +rice)
  • ๐Ÿฅฉ Use | for "OR" (e.g., beef|chicken)
  • ๐Ÿšซ Use - to exclude (e.g., chocolate -nuts)
  • ๐ŸŒŸ Use * as a wildcard (e.g., chick*)
  • ๐Ÿฅฃ Combine filters
    • ๐Ÿฅฃ Try (e.g., +Mexican +taco* -rice)
    • ๐Ÿฅฃ or (e.g., +"green beans" +ferguson)
  • โš ๏ธ Some special characters might be ignored.
  • ๐Ÿช Search by category (e.g., sweets|cookies)
  • ๐Ÿง‚ Search by ingredient (e.g., cinnamon, nutmeg)
  • ๐Ÿ” Try multiple words for better results
  • ๐Ÿ›‘๏ธ NOTE: One or more "-" without anything else will find no recipes.
  • โš ๏ธ Occasionally, the highlighting process breaks due to embedded hyperlinks, some wierd characters, some weird punctuation, sun spots, acne spots, etc. Nowt to be done about it.
โœ– Zoomed image